Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said Wednesday that its neighbor Burkina Faso had “reached an agreement” with Russian paramilitary group Wagner, a statement the Ouagadougou government declined to comment on Thursday.
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“Burkina Faso has now reached an agreement to use Wagner forces like Mali. I believe they were allocated a mine in southern Burkina as payment for their services,” he said during an interview in the United States with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
According to the Ghanaian head of state, “Russian mercenaries are located on the northern border” of Ghana, which is “particularly worrying”.
“We have no reaction. I leave him responsible for what he said,” Burkinabe government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo told AFP.
In several French-speaking African countries, Moscow is actively influencing the situation, particularly on social networks, and is enjoying growing popular support when the former colonial power France is increasingly defamed there.
Several countries have accused Mali’s ruling junta of using the services of Wagner, who is said to be close to the Moscow regime, which Bamako denies.
The question of a possible rapprochement with Russia has also been raised in Burkina since the September 30 coup d’état, the second in eight months, that put Captain Ibrahim Traoré in power, while the country has been grappling with deadly jihadi attacks on a regular basis since 2015 Has.
On Monday, Burkinabe Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyélem de Tembela met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow to discuss “priority issues for strengthening ties” between the two countries, according to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
When asked about the trip, the Burkinabe government spokesman declined to comment.
Mr Kyélem de Tembela said in late October that he did not rule out re-examining his country’s “ties” with Russia.
“We will try to diversify our partnership relations as much as possible until we find the right formula for Burkina Faso’s interests. But it’s out of the question to let one partner dominate us, whoever that may be,” he said in mid-November.
On Thursday evening, the head of American diplomacy reiterated his fears about the Russian group.
“Once Wagner kicks in, countries find themselves in a weaker, poorer, less secure and less independent position,” warned Antony Blinken during a news conference at the end of the three-day US-Africa summit in Washington.
“Our African partners tell us they don’t want their resources to be exploited, they don’t want human rights to be violated, they don’t want their governance to be undermined, so at the end of the day they really don’t want no Wagner,” he added.